Skyfall

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Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe and Judi Dench. In cinemas Friday 30 November.

While on a mission to recover a hard
drive with the names and aliases of MI6 field agents, Bond (Daniel
Craig) is shot under M's orders, and presumed dead. But of course he's
not. He then lays low in Thailand enjoying "retirement" before returning
to England to serve and protect when MI6 comes under threat. Silva
(Javier Bardem), a former agent and someone who’s got beef with M (Dame
Judi Dench), plans to take M down and seems to always be one step ahead
of 007.

What we thought:

After the dull and rather po-faced Quantum of Solace, it would have been enough for the latest entry in the Bond franchise to be merely above average.

In light of Quantum’s failings, anything surpassing that film would no doubt be hailed as a return to form for the franchise. That the new film, Skyfall,
not only surpasses that previous entry but also cements itself as the
one of the best in the franchise's history, should come as a delight to
fans of the series. Skyfall is a film that challenges Bond not
only physically but also finds him taken, literally and figuratively, to
far more personal places than we have yet seen for the character.

Wasting
no time, the film starts with Bond in Istanbul with a fellow agent
played by Naomie Harris, on a mission to find a hard drive containing
the names and aliases of MI6's field agents. This then leads to a
frantic chase through the streets of Istanbul, which moves nimbly from
foot to car to motorbike and then a train, climaxing with Bond being
shot under orders from M.

Of course, he isn’t really dead, and
when we next see him, he's lying low in Thailand, spending time with the
ladies and working on his drinking habit. But when MI6 comes under
attack, Bond comes out of hiding and to the aid of his agency, his boss
and Queen and Country.

Turns out that the person behind this
attack is someone from M's past, Silva, and the schemes he has planned
will put Britain's super-spy through the wringer like never before.

Bond
films have often used their stories as an excuse to string together
increasingly ridiculous set-pieces with cartoonish stunts and gadgets
that wouldn’t be out of place in a Wile E Coyote cartoon, with the
results being films where the sense of peril was undone by the absurdity
of it all. When they’ve gone for a more grounded tone, such as License to Kill or the aforementioned Quantum, the films have often been so dour as to turn off audiences expecting the customary fun of the Bond series.

It
takes a canny director to be able to judge the right of mix of light
and heavy required for a Bond film. Guy Hamilton. who directed Goldfinger, understood the tone. So did Martin Campbell, who directed Golden Eye and Casino Royale.
Sam Mendes, whose filmography is largely a showcase for material
somewhat weightier than the average Bond, seems to be an unlikely fit
for super-spy antics. But like Hamilton and Campbell, he has the ability
to bring a bit of levity to proceedings without allowing the sense of
peril to be undermined.

Better yet, particularly for anyone who has followed Mendes' career, he shows off a facility for action that was hinted at in Jarhead and Road to Perdition, but literally explodes here in Skyfall.

The
opening set-piece in Turkey is a promise of things to come, but the
film tops itself with each new action sequence, with the set-piece in
London being a particular highlight (nice too to finally see Bond doing
work for Queen and Country in that great city).

And Mendes,
unlike so many directors working in action today, understands that
building up to the action is as important as the action itself. He is
helped by a script from Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan, that
provides a wonderful story, actual characters and dialogue that
frequently fizzes (though the story does suffer from a bit of fat on its
mid-section).

Particularly refreshing is that this is the first
Bond film that places M right in the action. Previous films in the
series have used M as a character that is almost entirely a function of
plot. M would come in, give Bond his mission and then bow out for the
rest of the film. When Dame Judi Dench was given the role during the
Brosnan-era, M was given a bit more oomph, but the role still existed as
a largely peripheral character.

It seems a shame to have an
actor of Dench's quality at your disposal only to waste her on
dispensing plot details, which is why Skyfall is such a delight.
Before we even get into the film’s main story, we see M having to deal
with the bureaucracy of her job, having to fend off attacks from her
superiors.

Dench is marvelous here, her character having more
weight and colour than ever before. Toward the end, the film nudges ever
so slightly toward a buddy movie, as Bond and M join forces to take
down the bad guy, and the chemistry between Dench and Craig is a
wonderful thing to behold.

Bond films have always presented us
with magnificently colourful villains, and Javier Bardem's Silva is no
different. The first meeting between Bond and Silva is a fascinating mix
of flirting and posturing, with Silva caressing the chest and legs of a
tied up Bond while he taunts our hero.

You might chuckle at his
effeminate mannerisms or his verbal tics, but you'll never see Silva as a
joke, particularly once you see his physical deformity. Bardem, taking
his cue from his director, makes sure to balance a sense of threat with a
touch of fun and it makes for a villain sure to make his mark on Bond
history.

But no matter all its other qualities, a Bond movie
will always stand or fall depending on its leading man. Thankfully,
Daniel Craig is more than up to the task, and Skyfall sees him at his best yet.

Connery
was the cool man's man with a cruel streak, Moore was the jester with a
perpetually arched eyebrow, Dalton brought a dark intensity to the role
while Brosnan was the smooth charmer. If anything, Craig is the British
Bulldog (something hinted at with a small ceramic statue that has its
place on M's desk).

Tough, tenacious and never one to give up
where others might throw in the towel, Craig's Bond is the type who'll
smash through a wall instead of jump over it and whose visage implies a
history of hard won battles.

In a break from franchise
tradition, Bond doesn’t get much opportunity in this film to engage in
the ol' "Kiss Kiss" but he does get more than his fair share of "Bang
Bang".

Given the scowl that comes so naturally to his face,
it's great to see Craig bringing a welcome bit of lightness to the role
this time, no doubt encouraged by director Mendes. Honestly, at times, Skyfall feels like an Indiana Jones
film with its ability to mix action and humour without descending into
full camp. This is especially apparent during a fight scene with two
goons that takes place in a pit of Komodo dragons.

Making up the
rest of the cast are Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory, who works for the
Intelligence and Security Committee, and Ben Whishaw as the new, more
youthful Q. The first meeting between him and Bond is one of the film's
delights, particularly given how the roles of elder and young buck are
reversed for this film's Q and Bond.

Kudos should also go to director of photography Roger Deakins, whose eye for colour and framing make Skyfall
the most gorgeous Bond movie you’re likely to see. The bit in Shanghai
is a feast for the eyes and one action set-piece involving a bit of
hand-to-hand combat set against a backdrop of blue light might very well
go down as the fight scene of the year.

At nearly two and a half hours there was the risk of a film that felt bloated and overlong.

Thankfully,
it never outstays its welcome and come the end, you'll be chomping at
the bit for the next Bond film. For a franchise that has just hit the 50
year mark, that is something to be proud of, as is producing a film
that still manages to surprise and excite.

This latest iteration of Bond got off to a great start with Casino Royale, it stumbled somewhat with Quantum of Solace and now it makes a magnificent return to form with Skyfall. It’s almost certain to go down as the best film of the current era Bond and one of the best of the franchise.